At this point, take football and championships and bronze trophies out of the equation. They have no business here.

If you have a defined opinion about what happened on that December night in 2012 in Tallahassee; a night where Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston is accused of sexually assaulting a woman, you're one of two things: a jock sniffer, or someone with an utter disregard for our judicial system.

Just because a man and his attorney say he didn't commit such a heinous crime; because they say they assumed the case was dropped long ago, doesn't mean we move forward accordingly. Just because a woman, through a family statement, claims she was raped and that there is a witness and the Tallahassee Police Department botched the case, doesn't mean we dust off our hands and wrap it up with a nice, neat bow.

It just means Willie Meggs, the assistant state attorney in Tallahassee who will make the final decision to charge Winston or not, is getting paid to do exactly what he was hired to do.

We don't have definitive video of a man hitting another man in the head outside a bar, or a man hitting a woman on a dance floor. It's two narrative sides of one story.

All the questions that seem pertinent now — why did the victim wait nearly a month to identify Winston; why didn't the police take a DNA sample from Winston; why would the Tallahassee Police protect a redshirt freshman who hadn't played a down at FSU? — mean nothing until Meggs makes his decision.

Here's the worst part of all: these type of cases happen every day, and for the most part, go unnoticed. They become national news because of the hero status we place on teenage sports figures who wouldn't know a smart decision if they stared it in the face.

These cases are fed and nurtured and analyzed and scrutinized by a gotta-have-it Twitter world that thrives on building up and tearing down and character assassination — no matter the side. Perpetrator, victim; who cares? The monster must be fed — and everyone who is anyone can screech their peace in 140 characters.

This isn't about football. This is about what we, as human beings, do to each other.

Physically, mentally, emotionally.

That's not taking one side of the case or the other. That's the totality of what happens when unpredictable human behavior comes face to face with real life decisions.

There are no timeouts, no do-overs, no instant replay. There's only the fallout.